Sunday, August 21, 2011

Irene

Already in the early beginning of the year, when they announced this years names for the upcoming hurricanes of this season, I said to Alex that Irene would probably come our way. Not that I'm an expert in tropical storm developments or anything, it was just a feeling I had, most likely because Irene was the name of my beloved and very much missed grandmother and it is also my own middle name. So now it seems like I was right in my prediction. Irene is the ninth named storm in this 2011 Atlantic hurricane season and it is predicted to develop into the first real hurricane, sometime on Monday when it should approach the coast of Dominican Republic. Luckily, for us, the storm isn't going to reach those terrible and devastating hurricane forces before it has passed through the Lesser Antilles and moved on to the West, but nevertheless we are expected to get a good portion of strong winds, 40-50 knots, and the typical torrential rain that usually develops with these tropical depressions. Alex woke me up at 2.20 am a couple of hours ago and we have now set out a second anchor (using a Delta and a CQR) and more chain so let's now hope that the boat will stay firmly with this set up until the storm has drifted away.

This is the first tropical storm in our lives, hoping it will be an experience not too powerful. It would also be amazing if Irene could hold herself as close to the coast of Guadeloupe as possible as she's now supposed to hit land for the first time since she was developed into a storm. We're currently around 60 nm from the center of the storm. Click here for more info about Irene.